


i've loved you three summers now

by midzyzen



Series: you can feel it on the way home [2]
Category: X1 (Korea Band)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Domestic Bliss, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, but its actually 4+1 ig, literally just them being a cute couple and shit like i think serve personally, seungyoun failing to propose for 8k, this is a sequel but can be read as a standalone!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-05
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2021-01-23 19:30:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21325465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midzyzen/pseuds/midzyzen
Summary: "It’s been hidden in his drawer for some time now, waiting to finally be revealed and, if things go according to plan, end up on a certain someone’s ring finger. It hasn’t though, not yet at least, because as mentioned before, Seungyoun’s birth chart is moron sun, incel moon and virgin rising."Four years into dating Wooseok, Seungyoun tries (and fails) to propose. Thirteen times.
Relationships: Cho Seungyeon | Seungyoun/Kim Wooseok | Wooshin
Series: you can feel it on the way home [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1537378
Comments: 22
Kudos: 205





	i've loved you three summers now

**Author's Note:**

> lol ahahaha what if i abandoned my wips to write abt seungyoun being a good boyfriend i think serve? not rly. 
> 
> id love to thank my illest bitch [kinnie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tofugumball/pseuds/tofugumball/works) for betaing my fic coz i finally will not have twenty mistakes per sentence that i will be correcting post publishing the fic ahaha serve. thank you so much my generous queen. they are also an amazing writer so do check out their works after this one to cleanse ur eyes or sth they're all a serve.
> 
> this is set abt four years after the [first instalment](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21099317), so they are around 25 and I didn't really plan it out well time wise so you're just gonna have to believe me with this one. the title is from a taylor swift song bcoz i dont have a personality outside of listening to lover. the [playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5pIYdOCUpyN8HN3Kyaw5lC?si=S85axaTpRk2Tl7jTNGXmhQ) is the same as last time btw so serve

When Wooseok, Seungyoun’s boyfriend of three years, nine months, two or three weeks give or take (Seungyoun isn’t the best at mental arithmetics) and five days tells him just how attractive he finds Seungyoun’s personality, he has to stop himself from laughing in said boyfriend’s face. Of course, he has more survival instincts than that, but the urge is there. It would be easier to accept this kind of compliment if Seungyoun’s entire personality didn’t boil down to three pathetic traits: moron, virgin and incel. While he’s neither of those things in reality, he definitely acts like their sick, amplified combination more often than not, especially in regards to one thing he’s been attempting to do for the longest while.

That is, propose.

He sneakily picked up the size of the ring on a date they went on almost a year or so ago, at a funfair of some sort. Wooseok got Seungyoun a plastic, rainbow ring (surprisingly fitting, given the circumstances of their relationship) in a gacha machine. Unfortunately, as often is the case with toys designated for children, it was too small for Seungyoun’s fingers and instead fit Wooseok’s more slender ring finger surprisingly well. They kept the ring in the end as a souvenir for sentimental reasons if anything, stored it with all of their other memorabilia, from ticket stubs to post-it notes. Ever since Taylor Swift released _Lover_ he's been reminded of the burning need to propose to his boyfriend, and came up with the masterplan. He got hold of the ring when Wooseok was visiting his parents over the weekend maybe a month ago and took his chance, scrambling to one of the jewellers in the area to pick out a real one.

It’s been hidden in his drawer for some time now, waiting to finally be revealed and, if things go according to plan, end up on a certain someone’s ring finger. It hasn’t though, not yet at least, because as mentioned before, Seungyoun’s birth chart is moron sun, incel moon and virgin rising. He’s come up with at least three elaborate proposal ideas as of now, ones that he actually had organised and prepared for, but the moment he had to pull through, it was always a lost cause. His mind would go blank, palms suddenly sweaty, air knocked out of his lungs and Seungyoun’s train of thought would be long gone. 

With how confident and how, Wooseok likes to call it, clinically devoid of inhibition he is, Seungyoun thought proposing would come with greater ease. It would be overly cocky even for him to assume he wouldn’t stress for a second, but somehow it never occurred to him just how grave of a situation this was. Because yes, him and Wooseok have been in a relationship for a long while now, both of them navigating their way from college into adult life together, with the unspoken promise of a shared future. And yes, he’s asked Hangyul, Seungwoo, Yohan, Byungchan and any other mutual friend they’ve made along the way and they all confirmed that it’s been long overdue.

And yet, this evening Seungyoun finds himself on his fourth attempt at proposing and he can already tell he’s not even going to bother trying to carry through.

Wooseok, someone Seungyoun trusts his entire life with, shouldn’t be as intimidating as he is, sitting across the table with the least menacing expression Seungyoun can imagine. The situation works in his favour, too, because not only did they go see _No Exit_ (Wooseok’s favourite play) this evening (Seungyoun made sure to not fall asleep), but Seungyoun also suggested they stay out a bit longer to grab a midnight dinner (something he knows Wooseok adores when they do) at the chicken place on the way back. It’s not very high end, because that kind of atmosphere never seemed to fit them, but it was still a proper restaurant, an upgrade from their usual fast-food chains. 

He seems happy, too, not just content. There’s a subtle difference that Seungyoun picked up on over the years, with the way Wooseok shows excitement. He’s touchier, definitely, brushing his foot over Seungyoun’s ever so often, as if they’re back in middle school. He keeps bouncing from side to side in his seat, nose scrunching as he reads through the menu, voice a tone higher, fast paced, all the little cues that give away that Wooseok is in a perfect mood to potentially accept a proposal. 

Still, Seungyoun’s hands are laid on the table, frozen, chained up to the surface, not even daring to sneak inside the pocket of his blazer, where the ring is tucked in. Not today. There’s no logical explanation why he can’t bring himself to do something that seems so natural, something that he wants to do so badly. He could try blaming it on his perfectionism, but that’s not it, really, rather insecurity eating him up from the inside, burning at his fingertips, leaving him choked up. Seungyoun has already accepted his fate for the night, can imagine Hangyul’s laughter over the phone later when he updates him on yet another one of his failures.

“Jesus, you’re pathetic,” Hangyul _guffaws, _terribly amused with Seungyoun’s misfortune. “Yohan, come here, you’re gonna love this.”

Yohan’s face appears on the screen soon after, the knowing and at the same time condescending smile even more infuriating than Hangyul’s, “let me guess, he didn’t propose again.”

Seungyoun groans, already planning to donate his next paycheck to an anti-bullying campaign, “it’s harder than you think!”

“You’d think you’d know how to act after four years of this circus,” Yohan’s snide remark almost makes him wail, but Wooseok is asleep and he doesn’t want to risk waking him up.

“You should have seen him before they got together, he literally had a breakdown anytime Wooseok was in his hundred feet radius, homie was getting fucking palpitations—”

“—I wasn’t getting—”

“Nah, Wooseok was similar, though. Just more lowkey,” Yohan recalls. “I’d catch him staring at Seungyoun sometimes, but he’d brush it off really quickly, I mean he was taken more often than not, so—”

“—oh, my God, that’s so funny, the look on Seungyoun’s face whenever Wooseok had a new boyfriend, it was like he was constipated—”

“—okay!” Seungyoun interrupts them. “We get it, I’m an incel, Wooseok is an incel, we’re all incels.”

“I’m personally a chad,” Hangyul points out, only to be smacked on the arm by Yohan, “what’s your problem?”

“If anything, I’m the chad here,” Yohan argues, “you’re even more of an incel than fucking Seungyoun, and that’s telling.”

“You’re both very much incels,” Seungyoun adds.

“How dare you call me a bigger incel than Seungyoun?” Hangyul gasps. “I thought we _had_ something.”

“Yeah, a two year relationship?” Yohan reminds him. “Someone should be paying me for putting up with an incel in a romantic setting for this long, but what can I say, I’m naturally charitable—”

“You’ve got your head up your ass, that’s what you are!”

“Guys!” Seungyoun breaks in again. “Back to me for a second, please. I know I’m an incel and we’ve established that, like, at least fifty four times over the past minute. The question is, what the fuck am I supposed to do about it?”

“Well, hmm,” Yohan scratches his chin, feigning deep thought, “I don’t know, I’d try to maybe pull out the ring next time and propose? Speak actual words? Go all, _‘hey, Wooseok, we live together, raise a dog together, are still in the honeymoon phase after giving our blessing of a best friend Yohan a hard time for four years now, how about we get married?’_”

“Shut up, I’m not giving you free promo in my proposal,” Seungyoun shakes his head.

Hangyul nods, “exactly. I’ve been friends with Seungyoun longer, I deserve that shoutout more than you ever will.”

“Hey,” a tired voice breaks through the room. Seungyoun snaps his head to the side to catch a glimpse of a tired Wooseok rubbing his eyes in the doorway, “who are you talking to?”

“Gyul and Yohan,” Seungyoun makes room for him on the couch, so that his boyfriend can nestle comfortably by his side, “did we wake you up?”

“No, it’s fine,” Wooseok rests his head on Seungyoun’s shoulder, waving at the two on the screen, “just couldn’t sleep without you.”

Seungyoun ends the call before the sounds of Yohan and Hangyul pretending to vomit manage to ruin the atmosphere, “sorry, I’m gonna be back soon.” 

“You better,” Wooseok huffs, “what are you even calling them for?”

“Uh,” Seungyoun knows better than to lie to Wooseok, so he goes for a vague and partially true explanation, “couple counselling?”

“Okay, I’ll take it,” Wooseok laughs, eyes still droopy, “I’m gonna head back, yeah? Don’t stay up too late.”

“I’m gonna go with you, actually” Seungyoun yawns ostentatiously, “sorry for waking you up.”

“You didn’t, really,” Wooseok gets up, Seungyoun clinging behind him as they trudge to the bedroom, “see, Tan is asleep.”

“Tan is always asleep,” Seungyoun smiles to himself at the sight of their dog curled up on the bed, “I swear, he does that just so he doesn’t have to see our faces more than necessary.”

“What do you mean, he loves me,” Wooseok feigns confusion. It’s a running joke between them and their friends that their dog, whom they adopted a few months ago from the local shelter, is more likely than not to give them the cold shoulder. Seungyoun remembers one of the staff members telling them he’s a shy one, takes his time warming up to people. (He reckons their decision to adopt Yeontan in particular was at least partially influenced by both him and Wooseok having been reminded of a certain someone.)

While they do joke about it, it’s clear that Yeontan is growing closer to them with every day, or at least more accustomed to them showering him with love at any given moment. He recently started sleeping at their feet every other night, much to his and Wooseok’s amazement. They made sure to document the experience thoroughly, with at least two hundred pictures taken from every angle and footage the size of a full-length feature. 

“I know, babe,” Seungyoun snuggles under the covers, gently, so as not to stir Yeontan awake, “takes after me.”

“Hope he doesn’t get your incel tendencies,” Wooseok mocks him.

“God, you’d think at least you’d be on my side,” Seungyoun groans, “the only thing Hangyul and Yohan can properly agree on is me being an incel.”

“I mean, in purely technical terms, you’re not an incel,” Wooseok tries to comfort him, “like you’ve been in a, hopefully, voluntary relationship for like—God, it’s been almost four years.”

“I know, right?” God, he wants to propose now. The ring is tucked safely in the drawer right next to him, he could just pull it out and go with it. But then he notices Wooseok’s tired expression, his eyes threatening to shut anytime soon and he realises it’s better to save it for a more special moment. “I feel like that video, you know, this guy sitting across someone and he goes, _‘Look at us! Who would have thought?’_”

“Yeah, I know,” Wooseok sighs, “I was fucking terrified of you for the first few months, because I didn’t feel like dumping you. I always felt like dumping someone and then this mufucka comes in and I go hog wild.”

“Do you feel like dumping me now?” Seungyoun asks.

“No,” Wooseok closes his eyes, shuffling closer to wrap his arms around Seungyoun’s waist, “at this point, I don’t think I ever will.”

They fall asleep like that, with Seungyoun encouraged more than ever to propose. He doesn’t think he can hold it back for much longer. 

*

That was a truly bold assumption on his part, because Seungyoun learns over the next month or so that he’s perfectly fine with holding it back. He masters the skill of not proposing to Wooseok, really, he’s an artisan in the craft. If anyone asked him for the secret behind his dexterity, he’d humbly reveal that everyday practice is the key to success. It’s almost as though he’s never paid it a second of thought before, like marrying Wooseok hasn’t been an itching need for quite some time now. 

Because he’d rather blame circumstance than his own cowardice, Seungyoun decides to seek explanation for at least five more failed attempts at popping the question in the fact that both of them are rather busy these days. It’s not far from reality, with Seungyoun’s translation gigs growing in size and frequency and Wooseok scoring a role in quite a big project that he throws himself into with abandon. They still make time for each other, though, and Seungyoun has had plenty a chance to ask Wooseok to marry him.

He doesn’t, obviously, because he’s Seungyoun and his Mars is in Cancer. 

“And today is attempt number…?” Hangyul asks from beside him, and Seungyoun would elbow him in the side if not for the armrest in the way.

“Shut up,” he mutters under his breath.

“I counted,” Seungwoo supplies helpfully, leaning from the seat next to Hangyul’s, “it’s officially his eleventh!”

“Can you stop being obnoxious, it’s literally about to start any second,” Seungyoun tries to save face, but his feeble attempt is laughed over by his friends. He makes a mental note to stop referring to them as such, with how they seem to have made a career for themselves out of mocking him. 

They are currently in the audience for the play Wooseok has been preparing for this entire time. He’s not the lead, but one of the main roles nonetheless, a first for a production this large in scale. Even though Wooseok plays it off as just another gig, a stroke of luck, maybe, Seungyoun can tell how pumped he’s been at the prospect of his career moving forward. He shares the excitement, having directly experienced Wooseok immersing himself into his work. After all, he was the one who practiced Wooseok’s lines with him at insane hours, made him lunch to eat in breaks between rehearsals and finally came to see his boyfriend perform, armed with flowers and the ring, tucked safely in his jacket pocket. 

“I’m betting he’ll chicken,” Hangyul whispers, still loud enough for anyone in their close proximity to hear. 

“I’m not betting shit, I agree,” Seungwoo deadpans. “How are you feeling, Youn? You think you’ll do it?”

“Frankly, no,” Seungyoun can already feel his muscles paralyse in fear, “and neither of you are helping.”

“Sorry, queen,” Seungwoo has the audacity to look sheepish, “I’m sure it will go great, tonight or whenever you actually do it. He’ll love it and you’ll tie the knot and finally formalise your being obnoxious.” 

“Rate Seungyoun and Wooseok moments in terms of vomit-induction levels,” Hangyul proposes, clearly bored out of his mind. “I vote Hell Dog as number one. Or no, the couple pranks YouTube channel they started that flopped miserably.”

“I think the couple graduation Instagram spam was terrible, definitely peaked with that one,” Seungwoo suggests. 

“Wait, no, definitely the time they moved in together and I had to listen to Seungyoun’s bathroom meltdowns because ‘_It’s always been his dream to assemble IKEA furniture with the love of his life._’”

“That one Christmas we went viral on Twitter because Yohan posted a video of us having an impromptu snowball fight at the Target parking lot was objectively pretty disgusting,” Seungyoun reminds them, “like, personally, I still think it was sweet, though.”

“No, it was pretty gross,” Hangyul says. 

“Definitely gross,” Seungwoo agrees. 

Seungyoun doesn’t get a chance to defend himself, because the play starts soon after and the last thing he cares about is the irritating idiots beside him. At this point, he feels like proposing just to prove them wrong. He won’t, obviously, but in theory it works great as a source of motivation. 

Plan A was to propose backstage after the premiere, but it all goes to shit for two extremely significant and valid reasons. One is that Seungyoun grossly underestimated the grandiosity of the event and the number of people present. Him, Seungwoo and Hangyul have to push their way past a crowd of very busy people to find Wooseok. It’s loud, hot and uncomfortable, and Seungyoun truly believes that Wooseok deserves to be proposed to in more pleasant circumstances. Secondly, Wooseok takes his breath away the moment they see each other, not as much thanks to stage makeup, but the fact that he glows, because he knows he did spectacular and so does everyone else in the room. Seungyoun can barely think straight, let alone form coherent sentences with how stunning Wooseok looks, so he accepts the cruel fate of having his friends witness him fail to propose yet again.

“Babe!” Wooseok greets him, letting Seungyoun envelop him in a hug and spin him around, mindful not to hit anyone in their close proximity. “How was I?”

“I loved it,” Seungyoun kisses his cheek, then temple, then forehead; has to physically restrain himself from showering Wooseok with more affection than socially acceptable in a public setting. “God, you’re so good. I love you so much.”

It’s overwhelming how good Wooseok is at what he does. Although Seungyoun didn’t initially know the first thing about theatre (his knowledge only improved by a negligible margin throughout the duration of their relationship, but it’s a big step forward, anyways), he could always tell Wooseok had some sort of special flare about him, an innate ability to capture everyone’s attention, no matter what role he adapted to. It’s unbelievable to Seungyoun how easily Wooseok immerses himself in a performance, to the point where Seungyoun stops seeing him as his boyfriend, but as a character. 

“Thanks,” Wooseok smiles, uncharacteristically bashful, before pointing to the flowers. “Those for me?”

“No, fucking Hangyul,” Seungyoun laughs at the light smack on the arm Wooseok punishes his rather subpar humour with. “Yes, for you. My baby did so well, I’m so proud.”

“Uh, hi!” Seungwoo interrupts from the side, sending Seungyoun a taunting grin. “Do you have anything else to say or can we finally congratulate Wooseok?”

_Fuck you, _Seungyoun mouthes, as Wooseok slips past his arms to hug his friends one by one. Seungwoo just sticks out his tongue like the mature twenty six year old he is. 

“Thanks for coming, really,” Wooseok returns to Seungyoun’s side, unaware of the interaction. “It means a lot that you came.”

“Yohan’s really sorry he couldn’t make it,” Hangyul says, “he will come tomorrow, though, so don’t worry about it.”

“No, it’s fine, I know it’s important,” Wooseok brushes it off. They all know that as much as Yohan likes to act as though being Wooseok’s best friend of God knows how many years is the greatest chore he’s been doomed with, it’s far from reality. “Let me just finish packing up and we can, like, go chill somewhere if you guys feel like it.”

“Do we, Youn?” Seungwoo asks, less to tease him, but rather to get a sense of whether they’re welcome to come, in case Seungyoun has a Plan B in store. He does, in fact. Having suspected that the backstage wouldn’t be an ideal location for a heartfelt gesture, Seungyoun planned to propose after they left, at whichever place Wooseok would choose to celebrate at. But one look at Wooseok flushes Plan B down the drain, because Seungyoun knows that he wants to spend this particular evening with their friends and he deserves nothing less. 

“Sure,” Wooseok beams up at him in response, before shooing all of them away so that he can finish changing and pack up.

When they step outside the theatre, letting the crisp December air relieve their lungs from the stuffy, crowded green room, Hangyul asks him if he’ll be proposing tonight. Seungyoun shakes his head. Upon their questioning glances, he reveals, “I just realised tonight is about him. I know it sounds like an excuse and I’m also hellishly scared for the matter, but I just think it would be unfair to make it about _us_, when it’s not.” 

Surprisingly, his friends don’t try to mock him; instead Seungwoo sends him an understanding smile, “I feel you, though, like, it is Wooseok day. It really be like that sometimes.”

It goes without saying that Seungyoun respects Wooseok just as much as he loves him. He’s never regarded them as extensions of each other, skeptical of the narrative that relationships should be that way. Instead, he likes to think of them as individuals, whose lives, passions, dreams intertwine with one another. In all of his dramatic nature, Seungyoun doesn’t think he couldn’t live without Wooseok — he simply doesn’t want to. The proposal in itself is a conscious choice, not an act of desperation. 

And when Wooseok finally makes his way out, cracking a stupid joke about one of his co-stars and his hand slipping naturally into Seungyoun’s, he knows he can take as long as he needs.

*

“Define long,” Yohan asks.

“God, I don’t know, let me be,” Seungyoun whines, taking a sip of his coffee. “Like, I’m thinking maybe today? ‘Coz he’s finally done with schedules, we’ve both got the evening free, I could just do it from the comfort of our home, it’s a nice thing, isn’t it?”

“Hm,” Yohan hums noncommittally, “I suppose. Wooseok doesn’t like flashy shit, we all know that. I’m glad you didn’t go for the flash mob proposal, he’d be mortified.”

“Yeah, I realised it might not be as sexy as I thought,” Seungyoun shudders, still baffled at how he could have possibly thought it would work. 

“Also, it is, like, a safe space in a way,” he reasons, “for, uh, both of you. You need it for obvious reasons—”

“—I can’t fucking stand mufackas—”

“—but he does, too,” Yohan continues, “like, I know he’s changed a lot and shit, but a few years back he refused to say the word ‘marriage’ out loud, you know how he gets.”

Of course he does, because Seungyoun knows how his boyfriend was. He experienced Wooseok opening up to him first hand, with the initial months of their relationship being a learning process for both of them in that department. Wooseok himself admitted to being skeptical towards the notion of commitment, although his attitude supposedly changed over the course of their being together. It took time for Wooseok to become as loud and obnoxious (endearingly so) as he is now, with their mutual effort involved. 

And while Seungyoun knows for a fact Wooseok changed, it’s uncertain if it’s the case of a one-eighty — another thing that terrifies him greatly about the whole ordeal of engagement. 

“You think he’ll be okay, though?” Seungyoun asks, eyes focused on the floor.

“Yeah, I think he will,” Yohan’s frank tone is more reassuring than anything at the moment, “we haven’t talked about it much, so I can’t say for sure, but if I were to use my Wooseok radar, I’d say he wants it more than anything else, let alone is not opposed to it.” 

“Okay,” Seungyoun sighs. Yohan is Wooseok’s closest friend after all, so while there’s plenty of reasons not to trust himself, there are none to justify ignoring his input, “okay. Okay, okay, okay. I’ll propose today.”

“Good luck, ‘kay?” Yohan pats him on the back. “Much as I love clowning you, this has to end. If not for your sake, then for Wooseok’s, because _boy, _does he have it bad for you.”

Before he can fish for more details on just how much Wooseok likes him (pathetic, considering the three years, eleven months and six days of them being together have not reassured him enough), Seungyoun gets a notification from Wooseok. 

_hey_

_when are you gonna be going back home_

_soon ig_

_im still with yohan _

_why tho?_

_when u go back, can u pick up some shit from the pharmacy?_

_what exactly?_

_why tho pt 2_

_like, flu shit or whatever_

_id go myself but my muscles are over_

_theyre gone done girls_

_like im just sick and tired lol so anything paracetamolish_

_babyyyy :((((((_

_im coming right back_

_stay warm k ill get everything you need_

_bless u ily_

_no worries <3333_

_be back soon_

Excusing himself from the meeting and bidding Yohan a hasty goodbye, Seungyoun rushes to a pharmacy he knows is on the way back. He’s seen Wooseok sick a handful of times over the years, but the stress doesn’t dissipate. 

_old ppl hogging the queue_

_stay strong queen _

_hags die challenge_

_honestlyyyyyy_

_bitch youre RETIRED y cant u get ur fuckin_

_heart meds literally any other time_

_not when actual people are in times of need_

_ggggggg _

_btw_

_what r ur symptoms_

_my nose? is runny_

_my throat? be hurting_

_my head? keeps bitching_

_you like my fever? gee thanks just bought it_

_fkjdhfksdj_

_dude im begging_

_were trting to be serious here_

_no like im serious all of this_

_plus my bones be like vibrating or whatever maybe u_

_just laced my breakfast with crack tho idk _

_my poor baby :((((_

_also no i didnt_

_serve_

_bro like im just chilling tho dw too much_

_lol idk why i said that like i know u will lol _

_oke!! _

_two more hags and its my turn_

_have a nice five hours then_

_stfuuu _

_i hate that youre probably right_

_crusty cunts its overrr_

_stay strong pt 2_

_ily thank u <333 _

_sorry for being sick lol_

_i will literally end you on sight_

_dont be sorry!!!!!!!!!_

_bitches be like im sorry for being sick literally cant stand mufackaaaas_

_fksdjhskjdfhksh_

_youre so dramatic_

_i will not let u blame yerself_

_actually i will coz im net in line and this hag just completed her prescription_

_serving us downton abbey realness? king on his thomas shit today thats so hot_

_also slay? maybe a yaaas and wig???_

_WAIT FUCK_

_SHES ASKING FOR BACK PAIN MEDS_

_ILL SHOOT MYSELF IN THE HEAD_

_ok but get me the meds before u do thanks king xx_

When Seungyoun does return home, an overwhelming supply of pills, syrups and whatnot in his hands, Wooseok is asleep on the couch, tucked under a thin blanket. As he leaves the medication on the table, spreading them out and arranging them in a rather haphazard manner, Yeontan runs up to him and nuzzles his ankle. 

“Tannie,” Seungyoun picks the dog up, scratching behind his ear, “what’s wrong, huh? Worried about Wooseok? Me too, king, me too...”

He can imagine that Yeontan, who’s more often than not smothered with Wooseok’s unconditional affection, is at the very least confused by his sudden exhaustion-induced distance. He makes sure to make up for it, pressing little kisses to the top of the dog’s head like Wooseok tends to do. 

It almost breaks his heart to wake Wooseok up — he looks tired out of his mind, dark bags under his eyes contrasting against his pallor-stricken face. Seungyoun presses his palm against his forehead and yes, Wooseok is definitely feverish. 

“Hey, baby, sweetheart,” he crouches down to meet Wooseok’s eyes, which are fluttering open. “We gotta get you up, okay, get you over to the room.”

“No, no, I’ll stay here,” Wooseok mumbles groggily, “I don’t wanna risk you getting sick and shit.”

“What are you on about, moron?” Seungyoun forces him upwards, and onto his feet. “You’re going to bed, I’m going to tuck you in and you’re gonna be nursed.”

“I can walk, thank you very much,” Wooseok grumbles when Seungyoun tries to help him, “okay, nurse me, whatever. Whatever helps you feel better.”

“It’s supposed to help _you_ feel better,” Seungyoun reminds him.

“You’re more worried than I am sick,” even sick, Wooseok doesn’t lose his attitude, something that Seungyoun relishes. “I want chicken soup, by the way. Make me some.”

“On it,” Seungyoun brings out an extra blanket as Wooseok lies down, “I got, like, every single med ever, too, serving that hospital realness.”

“God, that’s so sexy, can’t wait to breathe through my nose again,” he sighs, voice hoarse. “How long does it take to make chicken soup?”

“Like an hour if I square up,” Seungyoun yells from the kitchen, grabbing the entire Vicks supply, “that is, unless you want a store bought one. We still have some.”

“Shite, might have to take you up on that one,” Wooseok squints in thought, when Seungyoun returns, “if I have to wait more than five minutes for food I’ll eat my own hand.”

“Duly noted,” Seungyoun says, “at least you have an appetite, that’s a relief.”

“Yeah, I’m okay,” Seungyoun begs to differ, but lets Wooseok continue, “like, the worst thing is that I can’t hug Tan.”

“I think dogs don’t catch human shit, though,” he hands Wooseok the nose drops, “like, I’m ninety percent sure you’re safe to get back on the scheduled session of cuddling the life out of that poor dog.”

“You think?” Wooseok perks up. “I’m gonna check that actually, God, I miss Tannie.”

“He misses you, too,” Seungyoun reveals, before going to the bathroom to wet a towel with cold water, “swear to God, never saw Tannie this affection starved.”

“Of course he is, he loves me. By the way, the internet says you’re right, so I’m gonna get him real quick,” Wooseok tries to scramble out of bed to let Tannie in from the living room, but Seungyoun stops him and presses the cold towel against his forehead. Thankfully, Wooseok is too exhausted to fight his way past like he normally would. Instead, he lies down with a scowl that only dissipates when Seungyoun gets Yeontan from his bed in the living room and lies him down next to Wooseok on the mattress. The dog immediately snuggles against Wooseok’s side, nudging the man’s hand to pat him. 

“Oh, my God, that’s so adorable,” Seungyoun pulls out his phone to take pictures of the two, much to Wooseok’s chagrin.

“Can we please postpone the photoshoot for when I don’t look half dead?”

“Have a feeling this is a one-time act of charity on Tannie’s part,” Seungyoun ignores his boyfriend’s glaring. “We have to archive this one for progeny.”

Wooseok just covers his face with his hands.

Later that evening, Seungyoun has to make a run to the grocery store to restock on chicken soup, because Wooseok finishes their supply in a matter of seconds. After he comes back, Wooseok is asleep again, Yeontan resting on his chest. In the haze of nursing Wooseok, Seungyoun forgot the initial plan of proposing this evening, but now that he’s offered time to think, resting down beside his boyfriend, he’s reminded of just how much he wants to marry him. 

When Wooseok shivers in his sleep, he fixes his blanket and presses a faint kiss to his temple. It’s more than enough for now. 

*

The first time Seungyoun even thought of marrying Wooseok is embarrassingly early into their relationship, around their first anniversary. It was just an impulse, unprompted by anything in particular. Wooseok was quite literally just chilling on Seungwoo’s balcony, scrolling through pictures of the night before. It was a small party their friend hosted, nothing too out of their comfort zones (this particularly concerned Wooseok), and they stayed over for the night, crashing on a spare mattress in the living room. 

His boyfriend must have woken up earlier than him — Wooseok is a light sleeper, after all. The rest of their friends were still asleep, so Seungyoun quietly joined him outside, revelling in the soft smile Wooseok sent him in lieu of a ‘good morning’. They sat in silence, surprisingly not in the least uncomfortable, Wooseok nudging Seungyoun’s leg from time to time, a gentle reminder of his presence. Sometimes, when he scrolled past a particularly incriminating photo of either of them, posing with silly expressions and very obviously under the influence, Wooseok would laugh, almost inaudible under his breath. 

It’s not odd, but it’s rare for them to be quiet like that. Both of them are outspoken to say the least, which translates to loud at obnoxious levels in each other’s comfort. It’s constant push and pull, endless teasing, non-stop conversation about anything and everything. They can go on for hours spewing absolute nonsense just to fill up the silence, make each other laugh over nothing. 

But moments like these happen, too, and Seungyoun can’t find it in him to remotely mind them. On the contrary, he relishes the serenity. He loves that he doesn’t have to force anything with Wooseok, that being with him is as natural as breathing. 

At one moment Wooseok linked their palms together, tracing circles to the back of his hand. Wooseok told him he loved him and it almost got lost in the hum of early traffic. That was when Seungyoun realised he wanted it forever, and that he wouldn’t mind growing old if it meant mornings spent with Wooseok, whether in silence or wasting time on mindless conversations.

“I love you,” he whispered back, kind of like a promise already. The inkling that he wants to spend the rest of his life with Wooseok might come off as irrational, but he didn’t mind then and doesn’t mind in hindsight. After all, his boyfriend spends the rest of their relationship proving his intuition right. 

*

On the third year, eleventh month, third week and fourth day of Seungyoun’s relationship with Wooseok, Seungyoun comes back home to his boyfriend waiting for him. While he could usually work at their flat, occasionally at the office, this time his boss offered him to do live translations for some Polish official at a government-related event, all big and important. Big and important unfortunately meant he had to wake up early in the morning, with barely enough time to prepare a single bowl of oatmeal to save him from starvation and put on something formal and uncomfortable. 

Work itself wouldn’t be as much of a chore itself, if not for the fact that he has to concentrate and completely cast aside their approaching anniversary and, consequently, his final attempt at proposing (or so he hopes). He figured he might as well wait a few more days and ask Wooseok to marry him on a special occasion (and in purely practical terms, it erases the need for Seungyoun to come up with a gift for his boyfriend, which is always a struggle). 

But the wait is unbearable, especially when it’s all he can ever think about, the idea that in three days his relationship with Wooseok will change (for better _or worse_) constantly lingering in the back of his head. So, the worn out Seungyoun rejoices finally going back home after a hellishly long day, hoping to recharge and begin mental preparations for the proposal. 

To his surprise, however, the sight of a tower of board games, probably their entire collection, and stacks of pizza boxes, still fresh given the inviting smell spreading across the living room, greets him. 

“Hi,” Wooseok greets him from the floor, Yeontan settled on his lap. He’s almost hidden behind their impressively vast array of games that they’ve collected over the years. Back in university, on their first date, Seungyoun remembers begging all of his friends, relatives, colleagues, anyone, to let him borrow any card deck or tabletop sets they had to offer, so that Wooseok had plenty to choose from. When they first moved in together and decided to hold game nights every once in a while, they started building a collection of their own, so that Seungyoun didn’t have to scrounge them anymore. 

“Uh, hi,” Seungyoun walks towards him, ruffling his hair and bending to press a kiss to the top of his head, “game night today?”

“I thought it would be nice,” Wooseok explains, patting the cushion across the carpet, “join me when you clean up and shit, I’ll be waiting.” 

“Sure thing, baby,” he can feel the initial fatigue washing away already, “let me take a quick shower or something.”

“Yeah, yeah, no hurry,” Wooseok tells him, awkwardly chucking a deuce up. “I’m just, like, chilling.”

Seungyoun senses there’s some underlying motive behind this impromptu night in, but he decides to deal with it later. He freshens up quickly, eager to destress with his boyfriend. It’s been a long time since they last held a game night, so he looks forward to it. He changes into something more comfortable than a suit and doesn’t bother to dry his hair before skedaddling off to the living room to take a seat beside Wooseok.

“How was work?” Wooseok asks before anything else, pressing a kiss to Seungyoun’s cheek. 

“Tiring, but okay. God, the salmon canapés, though… I think serve,” he takes the bag he left on the chair and digs them out, “nicked some for you.”

“Fuck, now that’s a serve,” Wooseok kisses him properly this time, which gives Seungyoun an unjustified sense of accomplishment. He takes a bite, before humming contentedly, “shit always be tasting better when you steal it from the rich.”

“Exactly,” Seungyoun ruffles his hair, taking a slice of pizza from one of the boxes Wooseok prepared, “it was in some sexy hotel and guess what they had!”

“Uh, dunno, fancy staff?”

“Think bigger, baby.”

“Fancy bathrooms?”

“Close enough,” Seungyoun gives in, retrieving a roll of toilet paper from his bag, “four ply!”

_“Four ply toilet paper!?”_ Wooseok can’t seem to believe his ears.

“Quilted. Count the layers,” Seungyoun flashes him a triumphant smile. Wooseok does as advised, marvelling at the roll.

“Fuck, it’s so _soft,” _he revels, “fuck, I take back everything I ever said about Slavic studies being a mistake, my boy’s a _provider_.”

“Smuggled, like, three rolls,” Seungyoun gloats. 

“That’s so sexy, damn,” Wooseok shakes off his amazement, “I’ll go put it in the bathroom, you pick a game or something.”

When Wooseok returns, Seungyoun presents him with the Monopoly box and asks how they want to go around it. Every game night has a special twist to it, a challenge of sorts. It’s usually a dare either of them has to complete if they lose, sometimes a favour and very often TV recorder privileges. 

“So,” his boyfriend takes a deep breath, the determined look on his face a little bit different than the usual competitiveness, “I was thinking of something different.”

“Different?” Seungyoun asks, intrigued.

“Best of three, if I lose best of five, because you love me. If you win, I’ll do whatever you want for a day.”

“A day as in twenty four hours as of…?”

“As of the end of the final game,” Wooseok clarifies. “You don’t have to worry too much about it, because I’ll be winning, but okay.”

“And if I lose?” Seungyoun asks, before adding a quick, “which isn’t happening, obviously.”

“Well,” Wooseok swallows, “you have to say ‘yes’ to whatever I ask of you.”

“For twenty four hours?”

“No, just one question,” he explains, “you in?”

“Babe, I’mma be real with you, this be smelling fishy,” Seungyoun studies Wooseok’s face in search of an answer, “like, I’m honestly scared at this point.”

“Scared?” Wooseok taunts him, a sneaky grin spreading across his face. “Poor little Seungyoun is scared of his boyfriend defeating him?”

Seungyoun’s self-preservation instincts fly out of the window when he frowns, “fuck no, you’re on.”

Although Seungyoun is planning to propose in three days, after a gruelling three months of countless attempts, it takes one game of Monopoly with Wooseok to make him want to flush the engagement ring down the toilet.

“You fucking cheated with the terminal!” He accuses. “You always do it when we play the terminal version, we should have never dropped the paper money one.”

“The paper money one is an absolute flop,” Wooseok yells, “you tasteless freak, this one has fucking credit cards and the terminal makes funny noises when I click the buttons.”

“Yeah, you sure as hell clicked too many buttons for yourself,” Seungyoun points at him, “there’s no way you have twenty million already.”

“Way!” Wooseok argues, crossing his arms over his chest. “You’re just mad I hogged orange and navy blue. Sucks to be you, moron!”

“Well, I hogged the national parks and you’re telling me I’m in debt?” Seungyoun retaliates.

“That’s what you do when you invest without enough assets to begin with.”

“You’re insufferable,” Seungyoun humphs, pawning his remaining properties to evade bankruptcy. “Next I want poker.”

“I get to pick next time,” Wooseok reminds him, adding the money to Seungyoun’s bank account.

“I get to pick, because you cheated.”

“I didn’t!”

“Did too!”

“Did not!”

“Did too!”

“You’re twelve years old,” Wooseok scowls.

“Better twelve year old than a cheater,” Seungyoun dissolves into laughter when Wooseok starts tickling him, falls back onto the floor with a thump that almost knocks over their coke glasses. Wooseok slumps on top of him, out of breath.

“You know I won fair,” Wooseok mumbles, “I don’t cheat.”

“I know,” Seungyoun holds onto his waist, setting him into a more comfortable position. “I just love to rile you up.”

And he does, first accusing Wooseok of cheating in poker (“You folded the corner for the Kings!” “Did not!” “Did too!”), which Seungyoun ends up winning, after all, and then strongly suggesting Wooseok peeked at the stock in Russian Schnapsen when he thought Seungyoun wasn’t looking (“You _so_ just looked at the cards!” “You are delirious, genuinely.” “Am not!” “Are too!”). This game turns out in Wooseok’s favour after all, which Seungyoun can’t really blame anyone but himself for, since he dealt himself four nines and no marriages in the first place. 

“So, you ready?” Wooseok asks him. 

“Oh, right,” losing himself in the euphoria of trying to win over Wooseok, Seungyoun forgot the initial premise of the entire game night, “bring it on I guess.”

“Uh, okay,” Wooseok begins, pursing his lips like he does when he’s stressed. “Okay, uh, yeah.”

“Hey, you good?” Seungyoun knows something is out of place, but can’t put a finger to it. 

“Yeah, I just—” Wooseok pauses before blurting out, “I think we should get married. Will you, uh, do that?”

Oh.

Seungyoun just stares at him in response.

“‘Cause, I’ve been thinking about it,” Wooseok goes on, “and, like, in purely practical terms, we’re married? Kind of. Not really, but you know, we live together, we have a dog together, like, our fourth anniversary is literally coming right up and I don’t know, I, uh, felt like we can move on to the stage of making shit official and get some sweet tax benefits along the way, am I right, haha?”

Seungyoun continues to stare blankly.

“You don’t have to actually say yes,” Wooseok explains hastily, worried about Seungyoun’s reaction. “Like, it was just a funny joke. Haha. We’re all laughing. Like, not the proposal part that one’s real. But, like, uh, don’t, uh, like, feel, how do I say it, uh, pressured? To say yes? Like, nothing has to change if you’re not ready, or you just don’t like marriage or anything, I’ll respect that after not talking to you for five business days out of mortification, but I’m not gonna be mad or shit.”

Seungyoun wishes he could come up with a response, but his brain gave up on him and shut down completely. 

“Youn?” Wooseok waves a hand in front of his eyes. “You good?”

“Three days,” Seungyoun finally whispers, “you couldn’t have waited three days.”

“Three days?” Wooseok tilts his head in confusion. 

“Our anniversary,” Seungyoun reminds him.

“What about it?” Wooseok still looks clueless.

“I was literally going to propose to you,” Seungyoun explains, mind elsewhere at the moment. It’s in a happier place where his proposal doesn’t get cucked by his future fiancé. “In three days. At game night. I wanted to play Monopoly and fight with you over the airplane pawn and then suggest you play with another one instead and pull out the engagement ring.”

It’s Wooseok’s turn to zone out, “oh.”

“Oh.”

They sit like that for a solid few minutes, either side trying to process the revelations. Wooseok is first to break the silence, “you wanted to propose for our anniversary?”

“Well, yeah,” Seungyoun confirms. “I’ve actually been meaning to propose for, like, at least three months now.”

“Oh.”

“Oh.”

Another minute of quiet passes, before Wooseok speaks up again, “why didn’t you?”

“Because,” Seungyoun sighs, “I don’t even know myself. It was, like, never the right time. I’m a pussy. I’m an incel. My IQ… bro, the bar is so low, I never watched a single Rick and Morty episode. Hangyul was having the time of his sweet life watching me fail twelve times—”

_“Twelve!?”_

“Maybe thirteen,” Seungyoun corrects himself, “I’m not sure about the math here, but, like, the point is I wasn’t sure if you’d, uh, vibe with the whole thing I guess.”

“With marriage?”

“Yeah. I didn’t think about the tax returns argument, though.”

“I only used it so that I had an excuse if you slammed me or something,” Wooseok explains, “I couldn’t care less about taxes, you know I bully Yohan into doing them for me.”

“Right,” Seungyoun nods. “Econ majors really do be hitting different.”

“Yeah.”

Silence again.

“So,” this time Seungyoun decides to ask what he thinks is a rather crucial question concerning this entire ordeal, “are we, like, engaged?”

“I mean, if you still want to?” Wooseok shrugs his shoulders. “I mean, I did upstage you, steal the idea for our anniversary, and I don’t even have a ring. We can pretend this never happened and you’ll propose on Monday and I’ll act surprised. I’m a professional actor, after all. I can make the crying realistic.”

That’s when Seungyoun starts laughing. It starts with a small snort under his breath, but then grows, he wheezes uncontrollably, tumbling down onto the floor. He doesn’t know when Wooseok joins him, but soon enough they end up crying from laughter, the boisterous noise startling Yeontan, who barks at them in retaliation. 

It’s relief, mostly, it’s the subduing shock of Wooseok raining on his parade in the sweetest way possible. The stress that has been keeping Seungyoun’s muscles tensed for the past few months eases and a rush of happiness washes over him. When they calm down, he answers, with the wide grin still plastered on his face contrasting with his glassy eyes, “yes.”

“Yes what?”

“Yes to the original question. I’ll marry you. I love you.”

Wooseok tussles his hair, “I love you, too. So much. I’m sorry I didn’t get you a ring. I wanted to get you one at some point, but I didn’t know your ring size. Like I know you have wide ones, ‘cause, like, that time we went to that fucking funfair and I tried getting you the ring, right? I just know which sizes don’t fit you.”

“It’s fine,” Seungyoun laughs. Wooseok can be so silly sometimes “We can use mine. I did get it based on the gacha ring, too, by the way.”

“Great minds.”

“The lady at the jewellers would beg to differ,” Seungyoun shudders at the memory, “when I showed her the ref ring she looked at me like I was a joke. Felt like Julia Roberts when that bitch kicked her out of some shop in Rodeo Drive. ”

Wooseok frowns, “did she kick you out?”

“No, God bless. I would have cried, probably. The ring is in my drawer, it’s just chilling.”

“Can I see it?” Wooseok sits up. “I mean, I’m gonna be wearing it apparently, so you probably are going to show me sooner or later.”

Seungyoun laughs, getting up to retrieve the box from their room. He sits down in front of Wooseok and opens it. He’s always imagined it differently, but he’s happier like that, wearing sweats, surrounded by empty pizza boxes, the glass of coke knocked over, cards still laid out on the carpet, their hell dog still growling and Wooseok’s eyes glowing as he slides the ring down his finger.

“Hey, uh,” Wooseok clears his throat, eyes trained on the ring, “I’m gonna go to the toilet real quick, yeah? I’ll, uh, be right back.”

“Say hi to Yohan from me,” Seungyoun says, as Wooseok scrambles away. “Also, wait! Before you go — can we pretend I was the one to propose?”

Wooseok turns around with an amused grin, “don’t worry, I’ll tell them all about how you bravely got down on one knee and had me crying like a little bitch. Not letting Hangyul eat my fiancé alive any time soon.”

“Thank you,” Seungyoun says, not quite sure what his verklempt self is referring to: Wooseok agreeing to salvage his reputation, him calling Seungyoun his fiancé or just letting Seungyoun stay in his life.

“Don’t thank me,” Wooseok can sense the undertones immediately, because he knows Seungyoun so well, and he almost feels like crying again, “I’m not doing you a favour. Now, let me have a bathroom breakdown with Yohan and when I’m done I’m all yours.”

The_ forever _is unsaid, but with the giddy smiles they share with each other, it doesn’t have to be for both of them to know.

**Author's Note:**

> hahaahahahahaa thank u for reading!!!
> 
> [buy me a ko-fi](http://ko-fi.com/joonswig) // talk to me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/midzyonce)


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